China is the world’s largest energy consumer

With approximately 5% of the world’s population the USA has been the world’s largest consumer of energy. As late as the year 2000 they used twice as much energy as China that has around 23% of the world’s population. Now that the International Energy Agency, IEA, has collected the figures for 2009 they find that China has surpassed the USA to become the world’s largest user of energy. (http://www.iea.org/index_info.asp?id=1479) In its press release the IEA states:

“IEA calculations based on preliminary data show that China has now overtaken the United States to become the world’s largest energy user. China’s rise to the top ranking was faster than expected as it was much less affected by the global financial crisis than the United States.”

Statistics show that a nation’s economic strength can be related to the energy that it uses. The question is whether China has now also overtaken the USA in economic power. There is no doubt that China is aware that access to energy is decisive for its future and they are currently making large investments in all areas of energy supply. The IEA concludes its press release with these sentences:

“China’s demand today would be even higher still if the government had not made such progress in reducing the energy intensity (the energy input per dollar of output) of its economy. It has also very quickly become one of the world’s leaders in renewable energy, particularly wind power and solar energy, and paved the way for a big expansion of nuclear power.”

“IEA calculations based on preliminary data show that China has now overtaken the United States to become the world’s largest energy user. China’s rise to the top ranking was faster than expected as it was much less affected by the global financial crisis than the United States.”

“China’s demand today would be even higher still if the government had not made such progress in reducing the energy intensity (the energy input per dollar of output) of its economy. It has also very quickly become one of the world’s leaders in renewable energy, particularly wind power and solar energy, and paved the way for a big expansion of nuclear power.”